Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES New York Mets (0-1) @ Kansas City Royals (1-0) Kauffman Stadium - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 World Series - Game #2 FOX Network, MLB International, 610 Sports, ESPN Radio PITCHING PROBABLES/BROADCAST INFORMATION Workout Day - Thursday, October 29 @ Citi Field: Time to be announced Game #3 - Friday, October 30 @ NY Mets: RHP Yordano Ventura (0-1, 5.09) vs. RHP Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 2.77), 7:07 p.m. (CDT), FOX, ESPN Radio & 610 Sports Game #4 - Saturday, October 31 @ NY Mets: RHP Chris Young (1-0, 2.31) vs. LHP Steven Matz (0-1, 3.72), 7:07 p.m. (CDT), FOX, ESPN Radio & 610 Sports Tonight’s game is being broadcast on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre, Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free controls the dials as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised nationally on FS 1 with Joe Buck, Harold Reynolds, Tom Verducci, Ken Rosenthal and Erin Andrews and on MLB International with Matt Vasgersian and newly-minted Hall of Famer, John Smoltz...tonight’s game is also being broadcast nationally on ESPN Radio with Dan Shulman and Aaron Boone. THE 2015 KANSAS CITY ROYALS POST-SEASON GUIDE IS AVAILABLE ON-LINE AT MLBPRESSBOX.COM Royals vs. Mets TYPICAL KC TILT OPENS FALL CLASSIC--Comebacks and close calls have been the mantra for Kansas The Royals took round one of this 111th World Series, the City and last night/this morning didn’t disappoint, as the Royals rallied from near Game #1 extinction to first-ever “expansion” Fall Classic, as each club entered Major eventually prevail by a 5-4 count in 14 innings, the longest World Series opener on record...the Royals had 40 League Baseball as expansion franchises in 1969 and 1962, come-from-behind wins during the regular season and have added five more to their resume in this postseason, respectively...this series moves to Flushing for the weekend, rebounding from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits last night, the comeback capped by Alex Gordon’s game-tying, two-out where the Royals went 2-1 on their lone look at Citi Field in 2013 and are 3-3 overall in Queens. blast to dead center in the ninth...Eric Hosmer atoned for an eighth inning error that gave the Mets a temporary 2015 WORLD SERIES 4-3 advantage by driving in the deciding run in the 14th with a sacrifice fly to right, his second sac fly of Date Site Score WP LP Att. the contest...when Alcides Escobar stepped on home plate, it ended a 5-hour, 9-minute classic that featured 10/27 KC W, 5-4 (14) Young Colon 40,320 exactly 100 at bats, 13 pitchers and 417 pitches...Chris Young threw the final 53 pitches for Kansas City, 10/28 KC 10/30 @ NY earning the win with 3.0 hitless innings of relief, while Ben Zobrist led the attack with three hits, including a 10/31 @ NY pair of doubles...the victory was KC’s first-ever Game #1 World Series triumph in four tries. OCTOBER COMEBACKS--The 2015 “Fall Ball” experience has featured five of the eight victories to this point occurring in come-from-behind fashion for Kansas City, the most recent earlier this morning when Eric Hosmer’s sac fly drove home Alcides Escobar for the 14-inning win...it began with all three wins in the ALDS vs. Houston seeing KC rebound from deficits, starting with Game #2 that witnessed the Royals falling behind 3-1 and 4-2 before prevailing by a 5-4 count...the biggest comeback to date occurred in Game #4 at Minute Maid Park, when the Royals were trailing 6-2 in the eighth, but finished the contest with seven unanswered runs, including five in the eighth to even the series and bring it back to Kauffman Stadium...KC then trailed 2-0 in the clincher, but again scored seven straight runs to record a 7-2 win and advance to the ALCS...in the series with Toronto, the Royals were down 3-0 to David Price and the Jays in the seventh inning, but plated five runs in that frame and eventually landed a 6-3 win...last night saw Kansas City trail 3-1 in the sixth only to tie the game, but then fall behind 4-3 with an unearned tally in the eighth, but Alex Gordon’s towering one-out blast in the ninth sent the game to overtime, where KC finally closed it out. THE LAND OF HOZ--First baseman Eric Hosmer drove home his 12th and 13th runs of this postseason with a pair of sacrifice flies last night, breaking his own club record for RBI in a single postseason, one more than the 12 he knocked home last year, while also setting a club standard for most overall RBI in postseason franchise history...he now has 25 RBI in 27 career playoff games, surpassing Royals’ Hall of Famer George Brett, who drove in 23 over 43 postseason games. HISTORY MAKING JAUNT--Alcides Escobar, the Most Valuable Player of the American League Championship series, ignited the 2015 World Series with a first pitch inside-the-park home run last night, the first to open a Fall Classic since the only other one in Game #2 of the 1903 World Series by Boston’s Patsy Dougherty...it was the 12th overall inside-the-parker in W.S. play, first since George “Mule” Haas of the Philadelphia A’s in game #4 in 1929...Esky has now hit safely in 11 consecutive postseason games at a .391 clip (18-for-46) with a .412 on-base pct. and .609 slugging pct...when leading off an inning through the 12 games of this postseason, Alcides has batted .524 (11-for-21) with two doubles, two triples and a home run...he entered this fall with a career regular season batting average of .262, but he’s turned it up a notch in October ball as evidenced by his career .322 average in the postseason (37-for-115) with a .339 on-base pct. and .478 slugging pct...Escobar’s 37 career postseason hits are second most in franchise history and just eight behind Hall-of-Famer George Brett (45) and his 18 this year are two shy of the team single-postseason mark. BACK-TO-BACK A.L. CHAMPS--For the first time in franchise history, the Royals are appearing in the World Series in consecutive seasons, winning the club’s fourth American League crown last Friday night with a 4-3 nailbiter over the Toronto Blue Jays, taking the best-of-seven series, 4-2...Kansas City is the first American League club to win back-to-back crowns since the 2010-11 Texas Rangers, and the third since 2000, as the Yankees won the last two of four straight A.L. titles after the turn of the century. SITUATIONAL HITTING--With a pair of key sacrifice flies last night, the Royals have extended a postseason club record in that department with nine already logged in the 12 games to date...the previous mark of six occurred a year ago...the 2014-15 version of KC postseason baseball has totaled 15 sac flies, which are two more than previous seven Royals’ playoff clubs combined...for the record, Eric Hosmer is now the Royals’ record holder for career postseason sacrifice flies with three. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Jacob deGrom (3-0, 1.80) vs. RHP Johnny Cueto (1-1, 7.88) 2015 2014 Career 2015 Regular Season 2014 Career Jacob deGrom vs. Royals First career appearance Major League Record 14-8 (2.54 ERA) 9-6 23-14 Johnny Cueto vs. Mets 0-1 1-0 3-4 Major League Record 11-13 (3.44 ERA) 20-9 96-70 JOHNNY CUETO takes the hill for his first career World Series start, fourth outing of this postseason and seventh overall playoff appearance...he went 11-13 with a 3.44 ERA in 32 regular-season starts between Cincinnati and Kansas City, including a 4-7 mark and 4.76 ERA with the Royals...he was acquired by KC on July 26 in exchange for left-handed pitchers Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed. Johnny’s Postseason Stats UP AND DOWN POSTSEASON--Johnny is making his fourth start this postseason DATE OPPONENT W-L ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 10/9 vs. Houston (G2) ND, 5-4 6.0 7 4 4 1 3 5 103-66 4-4 and looking to return to the form he had in the ALDS clincher here over Houston...in that 10/14 vs. Houston (G5) W, 7-2 8.0 2 2 2 1 0 8 91-62 7-2 October 14 contest, he worked 8.0 innings allowing just a pair of runs on two hits, retiring 10/19 at Toronto (G3) L, 8-11 2.0 6 8 8 1 4 2 69-39 2-7 2015 Postseason 1-1 7.88 16.0 15 14 14 3 7 15 263-167 63% the final 19 hitters he faced after surrendering a 2-out infield hit followed immediately by Career Postseason 1-3 6.93 24.2 28 20 19 6 9 18 - - a Luis Valbuena home run...the pitch to Valbuena was the only one Cueto threw out of the 2015 w/ Royals 4-7, 4.76 81.1 101 45 43 10 17 56 1340-860 64% stretch all night...his 8.0-innings stint was the longest postseason start by a Royals hurler 2015 Totals 11-13, 3.44 212.0 194 87 81 21 46 176 3268-2145 66% Career Totals 96-70, 3.30 1420.1 1268 570 520 145 410 1171 - - since Bret Saberhagen’s shutout in Game #7 of the 1985 World Series...that victory was sandwiched between a no decision here against Houston in Game #2 of the ALDS, a 5-4 Kansas City victory, allowing four earned runs in 6.0 frames and then a tough 11-8 loss in Toronto in Game #3 of the ALCS...in that affair, he was saddled with eight earned runs in just 2.0+ innings...he’s 1-3 with 6.93 ERA in postseason play all-time with 18 strikeouts in 24.2 innings.